Predator–prey interactions and climate change

Author(s):  
Vincent Bretagnolle ◽  
Julien Terraube

Climate change is likely to impact all trophic levels, although the response of communities and ecosystems to it has only recently received considerable attention. Further, it is expected to affect the magnitude of species interactions themselves. In this chapter, we summarize why and how climate change could affect predator–prey interactions, then review the literature about its impact on predator–prey relationships in birds, and provide prospects for future studies. Expected effects on prey or predators may include changes in the following: distribution, phenology, population density, behaviour, morphology, or physiology. We review the currently available information concerning particular key topics: top-down versus bottom-up control, specialist versus generalist predators, functional versus numerical responses, trophic cascades and regime shifts, and lastly adaptation and selection. Finally, we focus our review on two well-studied bird examples: seabirds and raptors. Key future topics include long-term studies, modelling and experimental studies, evolutionary questions, and conservation issues.

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Åkesson ◽  
Alva Curtsdotter ◽  
Anna Eklöf ◽  
Bo Ebenman ◽  
Jon Norberg ◽  
...  

AbstractEco-evolutionary dynamics are essential in shaping the biological response of communities to ongoing climate change. Here we develop a spatially explicit eco-evolutionary framework which features more detailed species interactions, integrating evolution and dispersal. We include species interactions within and between trophic levels, and additionally, we incorporate the feature that species’ interspecific competition might change due to increasing temperatures and affect the impact of climate change on ecological communities. Our modeling framework captures previously reported ecological responses to climate change, and also reveals two key results. First, interactions between trophic levels as well as temperature-dependent competition within a trophic level mitigate the negative impact of climate change on biodiversity, emphasizing the importance of understanding biotic interactions in shaping climate change impact. Second, our trait-based perspective reveals a strong positive relationship between the within-community variation in preferred temperatures and the capacity to respond to climate change. Temperature-dependent competition consistently results both in higher trait variation and more responsive communities to altered climatic conditions. Our study demonstrates the importance of species interactions in an eco-evolutionary setting, further expanding our knowledge of the interplay between ecological and evolutionary processes.


Life ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 298
Author(s):  
Bing Wang ◽  
Hiroshi Yasuda

During a space mission, astronauts are inevitably exposed to space radiation, mainly composed of the particles having high values of linear energy transfer (LET), such as protons, helium nuclei, and other heavier ions. Those high-LET particles could induce severer health damages than low-LET particles such as photons and electrons. While it is known that the biological effectiveness of a specified type of radiation depends on the distribution of dose in time, type of the cell, and the biological endpoint in respect, there are still large uncertainties regarding the effects of high-LET particles on the reproductive system, gamete, embryo, and fetal development because of the limitation of relevant data from epidemiological and experimental studies. To safely achieve the planned deep space missions to the moon and Mars that would involve young astronauts having reproductive functions, it is crucial to know exactly the relevant radiological effects, such as infertility of the parent and various diseases of the child, and then to conduct proper countermeasures. Thus, in this review, the authors present currently available information regarding the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of high-LET particles on the deterministic effects related to the reproductive system and embryonic/fetal development for further discussions about the safety of being pregnant after or during a long-term interplanetary mission.


BioScience ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 69 (9) ◽  
pp. 711-724 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley N Schulz ◽  
Rima D Lucardi ◽  
Travis D Marsico

Abstract Understanding the successes and failures of nonnative species remains challenging. In recent decades, researchers have developed the enemy release hypothesis and other antagonist hypotheses, which posit that nonnative species either fail or succeed in a novel range because of the presence or absence of antagonists. The premise of classical biological control of invasive species is that top-down control works. We identify twelve existing hypotheses that address the roles that antagonists from many trophic levels play during plant and insect invasions in natural environments. We outline a unifying framework of antagonist hypotheses to simplify the relatedness among the hypotheses, incorporate the role of top-down and bottom-up influences on nonnative species, and encourage expansion of experimental assessments of antagonist hypotheses to include belowground and fourth trophic level antagonists. A mechanistic understanding of antagonists and their impacts on nonnative species is critical in a changing world.


Author(s):  
Corinne Daly

Climate change interacts with other environmental stressors (e.g., acid deposition, calcium depletion, invasive species) to alter both the chemical and biological characteristics of Boreal Shield lakes, potentially leading to changes in aquatic biodiversity. Changes in biodiversity can result in loss of sensitive species and affect dynamic interactions among species at varying trophic levels. Currently, little is known about the effect of climate warming on predator-prey relationships in aquatic ecosystems. I examine how predicted warming of Boreal Shield lakes may affect predation rate. More specifically, my research examines how temperature affects the predation rate on zooplankton by common macroinvertebrate predators. Zooplankton, Chaoborus and Notonectidae were used from Swan Lake in Sudbury, ON. I performed 24-hr laboratory feeding trials to examine the rate at which predators feed over a range of natural and predicted lake temperatures. By investigating differences in invertebrate predation occurring in Swan Lake, we will be able to predict predator -prey relationships in Boreal Shield lakes subject to warming as a result of climate change.


Paleobiology ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomoki Chiba ◽  
Shin’ichi Sato

AbstractPaleoecological studies enhance our understanding of biotic responses to climate change because they consider long timescales not accessible through observational and experimental studies. Using predatory drillholes produced on fossil bivalve shells by carnivorous gastropods, we provide an example of how climate change affected predator–prey interactions. We quantitatively examine temporal changes in fossil molluscan assemblages and predation patterns from the Pleistocene Japan Sea, which experienced drastic environmental changes in relation to glacial–interglacial climate cycles. We found significant changes in predation patterns associated with a decline in the abundance of warm-water molluscan species. Climate-mediated fluctuations in the eustatic sea level and resultant weakening of the Tsushima Warm Current caused a decline in a warm-water shell-drilling predator, which moderated the predation pressure and size relationship between the predators and the bivalve prey. Our results indicate that climate-mediated range shifts of species in present-day and future marine ecosystems can likewise increase altered predator–prey interactions.


2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 702-705 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Luczak ◽  
G. Beaugrand ◽  
M. Jaffré ◽  
S. Lenoir

A recent study showed that a critically endangered migratory predator species, the Balearic shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus , rapidly expanded northwards in northeast Atlantic waters after the mid-1990s. As a significant positive correlation was found between the long-term changes in the abundance of this seabird and sea temperature around the British Isles, it was hypothesized that the link between the biogeographic shift and temperature occurred through the food web. Here, we test this conjecture and reveal concomitant changes in a regional index of sea temperature, plankton (total calanoid copepod), fish prey (anchovy and sardine) and the Balearic shearwater for the period 1980–2003. All three trophic levels exhibit a significant shift detected between 1994 and 1996. Our findings therefore support the assertion of both a direct and an indirect effect of climate change on the spatial distribution of post-breeding Balearic shearwater through a trophic cascade.


2013 ◽  
Vol 368 (1624) ◽  
pp. 20120482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gilles Gauthier ◽  
Joël Bêty ◽  
Marie-Christine Cadieux ◽  
Pierre Legagneux ◽  
Madeleine Doiron ◽  
...  

Arctic wildlife is often presented as being highly at risk in the face of current climate warming. We use the long-term (up to 24 years) monitoring records available on Bylot Island in the Canadian Arctic to examine temporal trends in population attributes of several terrestrial vertebrates and in primary production. Despite a warming trend (e.g. cumulative annual thawing degree-days increased by 37% and snow-melt date advanced by 4–7 days over a 23-year period), we found little evidence for changes in the phenology, abundance or productivity of several vertebrate species (snow goose, foxes, lemmings, avian predators and one passerine). Only primary production showed a response to warming (annual above-ground biomass of wetland graminoids increased by 123% during this period). We nonetheless found evidence for potential mismatches between herbivores and their food plants in response to warming as snow geese adjusted their laying date by only 3.8 days on average for a change in snow-melt of 10 days, half of the corresponding adjustment shown by the timing of plant growth (7.1 days). We discuss several reasons (duration of time series, large annual variability, amplitude of observed climate change, nonlinear dynamic or constraints imposed by various rate of warming with latitude in migrants) to explain the lack of response by herbivores and predators to climate warming at our study site. We also show how length and intensity of monitoring could affect our ability to detect temporal trends and provide recommendations for future monitoring.


2012 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Géraldine Lassalle ◽  
Jérémy Lobry ◽  
François Le Loc'h ◽  
Steven Mackinson ◽  
Francisco Sanchez ◽  
...  

Abstract Lassalle, G., Lobry, J., Le Loc'h, F., Mackinson, S., Sanchez, F., Tomczak, M. T., and Niquil, N. 2013. Ecosystem status and functioning: searching for rules of thumb using an intersite comparison of food-web models of Northeast Atlantic continental shelves. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 70:135–149. This work aimed to provide a better understanding of how the structure and function of marine ecosystems and trophic control mechanisms influence their response to perturbations. Comparative analysis of Ecopath models of four Northeast Atlantic ecosystems was used to search for rules of thumb defining the similarities and differences between them. Ecosystem indicators, related to the ecology of species interactions, were derived from these models and compared. Two main questions were addressed. (i) What are the main energy pathways and mechanisms of control? (ii) Do these ecosystems exhibit the widespread and potentially stabilizing food-web structure such that top predators couple distinct energy pathways? A strong bentho-pelagic coupling operated over the Bay of Biscay Shelf, while energy reached higher trophic levels mostly through pelagic compartments, in northern areas. Zooplankton was demonstrated to be trophically important in all ecosystems, acting as a regulator of the abundance of small pelagic fish. A latitudinal pattern in flow control was highlighted by this analysis, with a significant contribution of top-down effect at higher latitudes. This top-down control of the Baltic Sea, combined with the fact that this ecosystem did not exhibit the potentially stabilizing two-channel structure, suggested a non-stable environment.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heng-Xing Zou ◽  
Volker H. W. Rudolf

AbstractThe relative arrival time of species often affects species interactions within a community, contributing to priority effects. Recent studies on phenological shifts under climate change have generated renewed interest on priority effects, but their role in shaping long-term dynamics of seasonal communities is poorly resolved. Here we use a general stage-structure competition model to determine how different types of priority effects influence long-term coexistence of species in seasonal systems. We show that while shifts in mean and variance of relative arrival time can alter persistence and coexistence conditions of species, these effects depend on season length and type of priority effect. In “slow” systems with one or a few cohorts per season, changes in mean and seasonal variation of relative arrival time strongly altered species persistence through trait-mediated priority effects. In contrast, competition outcome in “fast” systems is largely determined by numeric priority effects due to interaction between many overlapping generations. These results suggest that empirically observed priority effects may arise from fundamentally different mechanisms, and that fast-generating systems may be less impacted by seasonal variation in phenology. Our model provides important insight into how natural communities respond to increasing variation in phenology over seasons under climate change.


Rangifer ◽  
2012 ◽  
pp. 183-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Bradley ◽  
Lalenia Neufeld

Woodland caribou in the southern portion of Jasper National Park have declined from an estimated 435 in the mid 1970s to a population estimate of 87 in the fall of 2009. We examined the available historical information to determine why caribou have declined. We compared three main hypotheses for caribou decline in JNP: human disturbance, climate change, and wildlife management. We used historical human use statistics, climate data, and animal abundance information to weigh the evidence for these competing hypotheses over two time scales. Caribou decline could not be attributed to changes in climate over the long-term, or an increase in human use (our proxy for disturbance). Caribou decline was attributed to a combination of climate and wildlife management. Recovery of caribou in Jasper National Park will likely be contingent on managing the interaction between the predator/prey dynamic and climate change.


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